The sculpture entitled A consola, 1973, by Artur Rosa, is on display in the exhibition “Helena Almeida/ Artur Rosa: Juntos”. The show, curated by Miguel von Hafe Pérez, is open at CAV – Centro de Artes Visuais, in Coimbra, from June 28 to September 7, 2025. This work illustrates Artur Rosa’s career-long research in visual and spatial arts, spanning the fields of architecture, sculpture and graphic arts. The work shows an affinity with Op Art and Minimalism, movements that reflect his approach to repetition, rhythm and optical perception.

A small-scale piece, A consola joins two contrasting elements: a vertical, monolithic and static body, which anchors the ensemble; and a horizontal, modular and dynamic structure suggesting transformation and expansion. This relationship between stability and movement, between mass and lightness, calls for an architectural reading of the sculpture, bringing it closer to a functional model — such as that of a crane — and highlighting its concept and its design.

Artur Rosa was born in Lisbon in 1926. He graduated in Architecture (1949-1957) from Escola Superior de Belas-Artes, Lisbon, and took on a versatile practice that included emblematic architectural projects, such as the Terreiro do Paço Tube Station in Lisbon – Valmor Prize, 2007, and the Leopoldo de Almeida Museum, Caldas da Rainha. He also produced works of sculpture for public spaces in Lisbon, namely, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Avenida Visconde Valbom, as well as set design work for Ballet Gulbenkian and for TEC – Cascais Experimental Theatre. From the 1970s onwards, he chose a more discreet presence in the artistic world, concentrating on architecture.

Seeing A consola in this exhibition enables us to reevaluate the importance of his sculptural work and his dialogue with the work of his partner, Helena Almeida (Lisbon, 1934 – 2018), in a framework of creative complicity and aesthetic sharing.

Hugo Denis